According to Guinness World Records, the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest is the heaviest building on the planet. It contains 700,000 tons of steel and bronze, a million square feet of marble, 3,500 tons of crystal and million square feet of wood.

It’s been described as a monstrosity, a beast and a horror and it's undoubtedly the heaviest building on the planet!

Here is a fascinating blog from all of us at Maloney Construction about a building that weighs more than any other structure in the world

How could such a building ever see the light of day?

The year was 1977. The earth shook under the feet of Bucharest’s inhabitants. Entire neighborhoods were destroyed, resulting in 1,500 deaths.

The communist dictator at the time, Nicolae Ceausescu, used the earthquake as a pretext to complete his vision of grandeur. Inspired by the colossal constructions of Pyongyang in North Korea, erected in glory of King-II Sung, the Romanian dictator decides to make Bucharest a futuristic city.

Ceausescu wanted to combine all of Romania’s political institutions under the same roof. He ordered an army of bulldozers to raze almost one-fifth of Bucharest’s historical neighborhoods (about five square kilometers), wiping off the map forever between 7,000 and 9,000 picturesque homes and almost thirty very old churches.

The dictator pushed 40,000 Rumanians to new buildings, some of which were unsanitary and had no water or electricity. The construction of the palace provoked a collective trauma, as highlighted by author Diane Chesnais: “The collective memory still remembers his massive demolitions and the sacrifices made for his edification.”

Construction began in 1984. For five years, 20,000 workers labored day and night, often in dangerous conditions, under the direction of some 600 architects and engineers. Ceausescu found a name for the building: the Palace of the People.

The Michelin Guide gives the interior of the building a lively description: Vast carpets, 1,200 rooms the size of a football field and chandeliers like stars. According to The Rough Guide to Romania, a staircase was redone three times to please the Ceausescus. According to Lonely Planet, when the building was lit in the 80s, in four hours it consumed as much electricity as the city of Bucharest in a single day. The guide also states that it contains a bomb shelter 20 meters underground. Gallimard adds that the various underground levels reach 92 meters in depth, where people condemned to death dug secret passageways.

About Maloney Construction

With an outstanding track record in the field of heavy civil and foundation construction, Maloney Construction has successfully managed a wide range of construction projects with budgets totaling more than $50 million and has successfully completed hundreds of foundation projects as a certified installer of A.B. Chance Helical Pier Foundation Systems.